57

1. Technical development of the piano and how its market grew

The first acoustic piano was made in 1709 by Bartolomeo Cristofori, who was a harpsi-

chord producer for the Medici family in Italy. The piano was originally built in the shape

of a harpsichord. At the beginning pianos were played in relatively small rooms, such as

in a salon of a noble residence. But pianos gradually came to be played at concert halls

holding thousands of people. The sound of pianos needed to be more powerful and emo-

tional. The only way was to increase the tension on the strings. New materials were need-

ed since the existing wooden plates could not sustain such tension. Alpheus Babcock, who

was a boiler shop owner in the U.S., invented the full iron frame piano in 1825. His pianos

succeeded in obtaining more powerful tension than wooden frames and expanded the

sound range by octaves. In 1837, Jonas Chickering, a piano engineer and a founder of

Chickering & Sons in the U.S., improved Babcockʼs frames and a patent was granted to

him in 1841. Steinway & Sons eventually played an even greater role in the evolution of

the piano.

　Steinway & Sons was established in 1853 in New York by Heinrich Engelhart Steinway,

who was a German piano producer. This company made important inventions and im-

provements to the piano, for example the invention of the over-string scale （crossing the

middle and bass strings） for grand pianos, quick response hammer action, and improve-

ment of the full cast-iron plate. These were referred to as the Steinway System. All pianos

use this system now. Steinway & Sons also had a positive attitude toward the marketing

of pianos. In 1866 the company established Steinway Hall, which was the second largest

concert hall in New York City. The hall had elegant showrooms for Steinway pianos. The

company also presented their pianos to famous pianists and supported their musical activ-

ities in every respect. They came to be known as Steinway Artists. The company made

use of their high reputation to increase their sales. They also sent their own products to

international exhibitions such as the Paris Exposition in 1867. The company gained a high

Saturation of Piano Markets　―　History of the U.S. and Asian Piano Industries　―　

Tomoaki TANAKA

Table 1.　Estimates of Piano Production, 1850-1984

（Unit : Number of Pianos）

　Source : Same data as Figure 7 ; Ehrlich, 1976 ; Ripin, 1989 ; The Records of the Korean Musical Instru-ment Industry Association.

Saturation of Piano Markets

58

reputation worldwide because of their excellent products and branding strategies. Sales of

Steinway pianos gradually increased from the late 19th century （Steinway 1953 ; Lieber-

man, 1995 ; Goldenberg, 1996）.

　However, even though the Steinway System and their marketing strategies were excel-

lent, the piano market itself only expanded slightly from 1850 to 1870. The worldwide pia-

no market clearly expanded from the late 19th to the early 20th century （see Table 1）.

There was an especially big piano market in the U.S. The volume of American piano pro-

duction increased about five times from 1890 to 1910. This resulted from a newly emerg-

ing consumer group, namely the middle-class family. Many people in this class bought pia-

nos out of vanity to put into their living rooms. Their preference was for a reasonable

piano, in other word the commercial piano. Commercial pianos were less expensive than

artistic ones. They were made for profit, so artistic quality came after price. Joseph P.

Hale was the one who started making these products. He sold commercial pianos at a

lower price than the manufacturing cost of other excellent piano makers, and he made a

huge profit from this business. Other excellent piano makers （e.g. Baldwin） followed his

way later. This is how the piano boom started and many pianos were manufactured.

Steinway & Sons got off the ground on this piano boom （Ehrlich, 1976 ; Ripin, 1998）.

　The Japanese piano industry developed slowly. Torakusu Yamaha started making musi-

東京経大学会誌　第 300 号

59

cal instruments in 1887 and established the Nippon Gakki Seizo （now Yamaha Corpora-

tion） in 1897. In the early days, Nippon Gakki Seizo mainly manufactured organs and har-

monicas （Nippon Gakki, 1977）. The company started to produce pianos in 1889, but their

pianos were patterned after the models of American makers. The company purchased al-

most all piano parts （iron frames, keyboards, actions, tables and so on） from Shanghai

Moutoless Commercial Companyʼs Kobe branch office. In 1892, they exported their organs

from Kobe to London for the first time2）. At that time, nobody thought that Yamaha

would become the biggest musical instrument company in the world.

　Koichi Kawai worked as Torakusuʼs right-hand engineer for pianos and organs. After

Torakusu passed away in 1916, Yamaha was thrown into confusion and a labor dispute

dragged on for months in 1926. Since Kawai wanted to concentrate on making pianos, he

established his own company, Kawai Musical Instruments Manufacturing, in 1927（Kawai

Musical Instruments, 1997）. The Kawai brand is now one of the most popular pianos for

music lovers.

2. Piano market in the postwar period

The worldwide market for musical instruments grew steadily until the second half of the

1990s. In 2002, total export and import volumes increased to about 18 times what they

were in 1976（see Figure 1）. According to Figure 2, the U.S. has been the greatest ex-

porting country in the world since 19903）. But exports from the U.S. have been declining

since 1997. Japan and Germany started catching up to the U.S. after World War II. Japan

has been the top piano producing country from around 1970, and Yamaha became the big-

gest piano manufacturer in the world. The trend of import volumes from 1976 to 2002 is

shown in Figure 3. The U.S. has consistently imported more than any other country due

to the enormous musical instrument market in the U.S.

　Figures 4 and 5 show the export and import volumes of the major companies making

pianos from 1980 to 2002. Japan was the largest exporter and the U.S. was the largest im-

porter in the world. The U.S. used to be the biggest producer of pianos until the 1960（see

Table 1）, but due to the thrust of Japanese exports, the U.S. turned into the largest im-

porter.

　There were many famous piano makers in the U.S., such as Steinway & Sons （estab-

lished in 1853）, Baldwin （1859）, Chickering & Sons （1892） and W. W. Kimball and Compa-

ny （1857）. Most of their pianos were shipped to the domestic market. Table 2 shows the

Figure 1.　Worldwide Trade of Musical Instruments and Parts, 1976-2002

　Source : United Nations Statistical Office, 1976-2003.　Notes : Musical Instruments and Parts include music media （CDs, Tapes etc.）, metronomes, tuning forks,

tuning pipes and musical boxes.

Figure 2.　 Export Position of Each Country in World Trade （Musical Instruments and Parts）, 1976-2002

　Source : Same data as Figure 1.

Saturation of Piano Markets

60

Figure 3.　 Import Position of Each Country in World Trade （Musical Instruments and Parts）, 1976-2002

　Source : Same data as Figure 1.

Figure 4.　Worldwide Exports of Pianos, 1980-2002

　Source : United Nations Statistical Office, 1980-2003.　Notes : 1980, USA=USA and Puerto Rico. 1980-90, Germany=Federal Republic of Germany+German

Democratic Republic.

東京経大学会誌　第 300 号

61

Figure 5.　Worldwide Imports of Pianos, 1980-2002

　Source : Same data as Figure 4.

Saturation of Piano Markets

62

number of American piano shipments from 1900 to 1955. Many acoustic pianos were

shipped in the 1900s. After the 1910s, shipments of acoustic pianos gradually declined,

while shipments of player pianos increased. The shipments of pianos as a whole largely

decreased in the first half of the 1930s due to the severe economic depression in the U.S.

and a consumer movement toward ready-made music from radios and phonographs. Ex-

cept for this period and World War II, the demand for pianos did not drastically decrease

（see Table 2）. This market structure differed from the Asian market as stated in Chapter

3.

　Figure 6 shows the data of major piano exporters to the U.S. from 1980 to 2002. Japan

and South Korea were by far the top two countries to export pianos to the U.S. until 2000.

But since then, the U.S. piano market has become increasingly dependent on Chinese

manufacturers. The volume of imports from China caught up with Japan in 2002. China

has become an important country for the U.S. piano market.

3. Unique characteristics of the piano markets in Japan and South Korea

Some countries in Asia both produce and export pianos. Some countries in Asia also have

large piano markets. This chapter focuses on two countries, Japan and South Korea.

Table 2.　Historical Piano Shipments in the U.S.

　Source : The Internal Records of Steinway Japan ; Steinway Asia, LLC : Lieberman, 1995, Chapter 20, endnote, 31, 36.

　Notes : We left the cell empty when we could not find information.

（Unit : Number of Pianos）

東京経大学会誌　第 300 号

63

　Japanese piano production and sales increased exponentially until 1980（see Figure 7）.

In 1995, the volume of piano exports exceeded domestic sales. In other words, the Japa-

nese piano industry was supported by domestic demand for a long time. The size of the

Japanese market was comparable to the United States from the 1970s to the early 1990s

（see Figure 8）, although the Japanese population was less than half that of the U.S. Addi-

tionally, we see that after Japanese sales increased at a rapid rate, sales marked a sharp

decline. This trend in Japan was similar to what happened in the South Korean market

Figure 6.　Major Countries Exporting to the American Piano Market, 1980-2002

Source : Same data as Figure 4.

Figure 7.　 Production and Sales of Pianos in Japan, and Exports of Pianos from Japan to the World from 1954-2002

　Source : Research and Statistics Department Economic, 2001-2002 ; Research and Statistics Department Ministerʼs, 1955-1965 ; Research and Statistics Department Ministerʼs, 1966-2000.

Saturation of Piano Markets

64

Figure 8.　Comparison of Piano Markets in the U.S., Japan and South Korea

　Source : Same data as in Figure 7 ; the Internal Records of Steinway Japan; Steinway Asia, LLC ; the Re-cords of the Korean Musical Instrument Industry Association.

　Notes : We could not find data about the U.S. from 1996 to 2001.

Figure 9.　Japan Piano Industry and Economics

　Source : Same data as Figure 7 ; Maddison, 2001.　Notes : $=1990 Geary-Khamis Dollars.

東京経大学会誌　第 300 号

65

Figure 10.　South Korean Piano Industry and Economics

　Source : The Records of the Korean Musical Instrument Industry Association ; Maddison, 2001.　Notes : $=1990 Geary-Khamis Dollars.

Saturation of Piano Markets

66

（see Figure 8）. Why did Japan and South Korea show drastic increases and decreases?

　Figures 9 and 10 provide more information on the Japanese and South Korean piano in-

dustries4） and their economic situations. Piano demand did not correlate closely with the

growth of GDP because there is a limit to piano demand. Generally, it is said that the

maximum diffusion rate of pianos is 20-25%. Table 3 shows the diffusion rate of pianos

and consumer durable goods in Japan from 1959 to 2004. The diffusion rate of pianos in

Japan stopped at around 21-23%. The South Korean diffusion rate of pianos also stopped

at around 22%（see Table 3）. In contrast, in Japan, the diffusion rate of so-called white

goods （household appliances like refrigerators, etc.） reached close to 100% and that of

cars exceeded 80%（see Table 3）. This situation resulted from the peculiar character of

the pianoʼs origin. As mentioned in Chapter 1, the technology of pianos basically stayed

with the Steinway System and there were no big model changes like with cars. Moreover,

pianos are products that last for a lifetime （Steinway pianos can play for 100 years）. How-

ever, the American piano market did not exhibit the same type of drastic changes as Ja-

pan and South Korea. This difference was caused by the different characteristics of musi-

cal culture in the countries involved.

　American culture has been familiar with piano music for a long time, but before World

Table 3.　The Diffusion Rate of Main Durable Goods in Japan

　Source : Cabinet Office, 2005 ; The Internal Records of Steinway Japan ; Steinway Asia, LLC

（Unit : %）

東京経大学会誌　第 300 号

67

Saturation of Piano Markets

68

War II, people in Japan and South Korea considered pianos to be musical instruments of

distant countries. General customers were even less familiar with pianos than organs, be-

cause they were very expensive. Yamaha manufactured more organs than pianos （e.g.

they produced 1,219 pianos and 5,917 organs in 19305）） until WWII, but that situation

changed in the postwar period. Asian piano manufacturers, especially Yamaha and Kawai,

succeeded in producing low-priced pianos with a cheap labor force and modern factories

which made possible mass production. Piano lessons by the Yamaha Music School were

the most popular culture lessons （o-keikogoto） in Japan. In 1993, 63.7% of culture lessons

for Japanese girls were related to music, most of them piano lessons （Ministry of Educa-

tion, 1993）.

　Yamaha established music schools in their directly managed stores and dealersʼ stores

from 1954（the first school was established at the Ginza Yamaha Store in Tokyo）. There

were 150 students at the beginning. After two years （1956）, the number had increased to

1,000 students （10 schools）, and to 20,000 students （700 schools） in 1959. Yamaha expand-

ed its music schools overseas in 1964. In 2000, it reached 610,000 students worldwide

（547,000 students in Japan） and 13,000 schools （6,000 schools in Japan）6）. The educational

system used by Yamaha Music School was innovative. Classes in the U.S. and and Europe

were standardized individual lessons. The method used by Yamaha Music Schools empha-

sized group lessons to children （especially kindergarten children） enabling them to keep

the price of lessons down. Music lessons in the U.S. usually start in elementary school, but

Yamaha Music Schools provided a unique type of preschool education7）. Figure 11 shows

the correlation of increasing piano sales with the number of kindergarten children. This

shows how kindergarten children supported the growth of the Japanese piano market un-

til the 1970s8）. The Yamaha education system was imitated by other Japanese musical in-

strument makers, e.g. Kawai and Roland. In this way, the piano became a familiar musical

instrument for the general Japanese public. The Japanese piano market expanded due to

reasonable pricing and piano lessons.

　The drastic increase that went up to the demand ceiling caused a drastic decrease in

piano sales. The expansion of the used piano market from the 1980s also accelerated the

decrease of new piano sales. The accentuated shape of the demand curve for pianos in Ja-

pan was different from the gradual American curve.

　The success of Japanese piano makers can be expressed as an analogy to large-scale

plantations in the desert （the Japanese piano market）, where plants ordinarily donʼt grow

without irrigation （potential piano market）. Since ground water or potential piano mar-

Figure 11.　The Correlation between Kindergarten Enrollment and Piano Sales Numbers in Japan

　Source : Same data as Figure 7 ; Ministry of Education, 2001.

東京経大学会誌　第 300 号

69

kets are limited natural resources, excessive use causes the resource to dry up. As often

seen in large-scale farms around the world, e.g. Punjab in India and the American Middle

Western states （Kansas etc.）, or as seen in the demand for pianos in Japan and South Ko-

rea, drastic increases and decreases occur due to overuse of the resource. Japan and

South Korea will probably have to wait about 100 years until the Japanese and South Ko-

rean markets return.

4. Conclusion―brief forecast of the Chinese piano market―

　China is the last huge piano market in the world. Piano manufacturers around the

Saturation of Piano Markets

70

world pay attention to this market. As the last step in our analysis, we will discuss the

Chinese piano market and its future.

　According to research by an American piano company reference, the Chinese piano

market has been expanding every year. Chinese domestic sales in 2000 were 181,710 units.

This sales volume was comparable to the peak of South Korean piano sales （186,584

units）. However, the diffusion rate of pianos in China in 2000 was 1.26%（Wángnàdá,

2003）. South Korean sales volume was 24,000 units when its diffusion rate became 1.20%

in 1975, and Japan sales were 30,071 units when its diffusion rate was 1.60% in 1959. This

means that Japanese and South Korean sales volumes reached a peak when their diffusion

rates were around 13-15%. That is to say, it is likely that Chinese piano sales will be

about 2,070,000 units9） at their peak. However, all sales volume will not come from the sale

of acoustic pianos. In 2001, domestic Japanese electronic piano10） sales were 133,879 units,

and acoustic piano sales were 41,553 units. Eventually, it is likely that sales of acoustic pia-

nos in China will be one-third of total piano sales, about 690,000 units.　

　The American musical instrument market （including pianos） in 2015 was 7.1 billion US

dollars which accounted for 44% of the world market （16.2 billion US dollars）. The second

market was China with 1.5 billion US dollars, and the third market was Japan with 1.2 bil-

lion US dollars （Music Trades, 2016a, p. 3）. These figures also indicate that China has al-

ready become an important market for the piano industry. This situation influences musi-

cal instrument trade shows. Music industry officials used to regard the National

Association of Music Merchants （NAMM） Show （held in the U.S.）, the Musikmesse （held

in Germany） and the Musical Instrument Fair （held in Japan） as the three largest world

trade shows. Although, there were still 115,085 visitors to the NAMM Show in 2018, the

Music CHINA show in 2017 was a second ranked trade show that recorded 105,125 visi-

tors. The Musikmesse in 2018 saw 82,442 visitors and the Musical Instrument Fair in 2016

had 46,976 visitors. These previously international shows are gradually becoming local

events11）. Many musical instrument companies make product strategies aimed at the mar-

kets of the U.S. and China. The most popular piano maker in their markets and the

worldʼs biggest company is Yamaha （estimated revenue in US dollars was 4.26 billion in

2015 : Japan）. The second largest company is Gibson Brands （1.73 billion US dollars : U.S.）,

and the third is Harman Professional （1.05 billion US dollars : U.S.）12）. Gibson Brands went

into bankruptcy in May, 2018, so Yamaha overwhelmingly gained ground in its ranking in

the world13）.

　The market for pianos will dry up in China sooner or later. There is almost no doubt

東京経大学会誌　第 300 号

71

that China will repeat the demand model of Asian countries （drastic increase and de-

crease）. It is most important for piano makers to find potential demand （unexplored piano

markets） quickly and protect themselves from the market forces that will dry up their

demand.

Notes1 ）See the following books for information about early piano technical history. Dolge, 1911 ;

Omiya, 1994 ; Nishihara, 1995 ; Nakatani, 2001.2 ）“Japan Woodwork Company and Nippon Gakki Seizo,” Nichigaku Shahou, no. 189, 1965, p. 22.3 ）The U.S. recently became the fourth largest exporting country. The U.S. was still the top

importing country in 2016（United Nations Statistical Office 2017）.4 ）There are two famous piano makers in South Korea, Young Chang Ltd （Founded 1956） and

Samick Music Co. （Founded 1958）.5 ）Local Management and Economic Conference, 1994, p. 71.6 ）See the internal records of Yamaha Co. and Yamaha Music Foundation.7 ）Music teachers and PTA in the U.S. were interested in the documentary movie of Japanese

Kindergarten children, “The Music Training of Kenchan” produced by Yamaha Music School in 1966. “Yamaha Music School in the U.S.” Nichigaku Shahou, no. 192, 1966, p. 20.

8 ）The divergence of piano sales and number of kindergarten children is due to increased digi-tal piano sales.

9 ）186,584×14 / 1.26≒2,072,948.24（units）10）The major Japanese piano companies （Yamaha, Roland, Casio, Kawai and Korg） began to

make digital pianos in the early 1980s. The quality of digital pianos is approaching that of acoustic pianos. In this paper, ‘pianoʼ means the acoustic piano. See this article about the his-torical relation between the acoustic piano and digital piano in Japan. Tanaka, 2012.

11）The association of Japan Music Fair （2016）“The Number of Musical Instrument Fairs in 2016”; “2017 music CHINA” Japan Music Trades, November 1, 2017, p. 6 ; “2018 NAMM Show” Japan Music Trades, March 1, 2018, p. 9 ; “Report on Musikmesse 2018 : Focus on all the events. Business booms even though attendance is down. The remarkable trend towards a consumer oriented show!” Japan Music Trades, May 1, 2018, p. 11.

12）Music Trades, 2016b, p. 1613）“Gibson Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy” The Music Trades Online（Breaking News）, May

2, 2018.

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72

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Music Trades（Japan Music Trades Co., Ltd）.

Special ThanksRobert F. Dove （Former President, Steinway Asia, LLC）Alec Weil （Former Pacific Rim Representative, Steinway & Sons, Japan, Ltd.）Terushiro Arai （Former General Affairs Manager, Steinway & Sons, Japan, Ltd.）Sherry MiyasakaTamami Tanaka